Happy Reformation Day!
Protestants have been celebrating Reformation Day for hundreds of years. It always falls on October 31st, which is when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses onto the door of a Catholic Church in 1517.
“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.”
- Martin Luther
What can you do today to share God's truth, love and the Gospel?
Ideas for celebrating:
Here are celebration and educating ideas for the day as well as ways to reach your neighborhood for Christ...
Home - Neighborhood Yard Outreach:
Intentionally reach your neighbors for Christ:
*Decorate your yard and porch in a way that points to Christ and death.
*Create a yard
like this and minister to all who stop by.
Or see Yard decoration ideas
here for alternate decor ideas.
* Instead of having folk walk up to your door, Set up a table on the sidewalk from 5pm to 9pm and have a stash of cheap gifts (in the house to replenish the table). Wrap in Harvest paper or in Harvest designed bags. Put in inexpensive or toys from Oriental trading company "plus" a kids comic tract. And give one out each to the neighbor kids and teens, along with a piece of candy or in place of. As a way to do a good deed and show Christ's love to neighbors. You can have godly convos too. You can hand out a tract to the parents also and invite them to a evangelism event the church will put on soon, or invite to Church in general. Even offer to drive those on your street there.
Optionsl: In advance, hand out fliers or mail invites to your neighbors...
At yard event :
-Put up tables to chat, welcome, give things out and a treat tract bag.
-Play games w prizes for kids.
>Do pumpkin carving contest (see bottom)
>Do a scavenger hunt in the yard
-Stand around and chat with visiting neighbors.
Fun door idea:
1. Contactless: Maybe put up 95 Reeses on your door with a sticker on the back "NeedGod.com", take a Pic and let the kids have at it.
2. Interactive: Tape balloon on each candy (see below) and give the neighbor kids a chance to pop with dart to win a bigger prize (a zip bag with candy incl. A comic gospel tract or Halloween mdb$ in it). Do as part of a yard outreach fun with a table and ideas you think of. 😀 # Do this one with yard outreach
95 Reeses 😂 Display
*Do a 95 theses relay race where you divided into teams and would see who could get the most theses up in the alloted amount of time. The thesis with tape on the back, then run and slap them on the wall.
All these things open up yeat round opportunities to minister to your neighbors 365 days a year. To pray for them. Minister in hard times, at life loss times, celebrate milestones, achievements, send cards and congratulate them. Do good to them.
*Church pals and members who don't have a house: invite them over to help you witness to and love on the people at your home in your neighborhood by manning a table or activity in your yard, or helping distribute hot chocolate at the event.
In the Community:
Outside and In the Neighborhood, as well as at Yard outreach:
*Do you use your dog for evangelism opportunities day to day? If so your pooch might enjoy a job and walk. Give him a candy basket to carry for you as you hand out candy at your home or as you go around your neighborhood and hand some out, or to local businesses to gift a treat.
Oct 31
*Buy & toss a gospel of John book on the driveway of every home in your area with a gospel tract as a bookmark inside.
*Go around to businesses you frequent, and meet the manager. Offer some left over Halloween candy bags to the employees. Make sure the employees can overhear it. To make sure they get it. Choose a tract that doesnt look like a tract, so even those in cults will read it.
Nov 1st:
*Go around to local businesses nearby and hand out left over or extra made packs of Halloween treats to all the staff.
* Give away leftover candy bags at work to anyone who wants a treat on their break. Send a email or group chat out.
At Home with Friends:
* Send invites to friends, family, associates, and neighbors "you know", to a Harvest Party or Reformation Party you will host at your home.
Start hosting a annual reformation celebration with reformed friends. Have a potluck type feast, do a bonfire,
play games, wear 1500-1600 time period attire. Have a best reformer look alike contest. As well have info throughout the about reformers. We also show pilgrims progress movie & educational opportunities for our children & church leading up to the event.
* Teens: Have parents throw a themed Harvest party at your home. Provide a list of characters a person can dress up as, with no costume option for those who dont want to.
Gives you control of what happens, can have a scheduled agenda for the night, and prizes for winning games and awards for the most well behaved, the most thoughtful, and various ones you can think of. Includes a polaroid photo op for a good memory. You can write in thin marker on the back..."We enjoyed you being at the party. Wouldnt be the same without you. The Smiths. John 3:16".
...and at nights end, includes sharing a short telling of the Luther Reformation story. Include goodie bag for on their way out which includes a good gospel tract, a Gospel of John, and a small baggie of candy.
*We have friends over and the kids could dress up, we do games like 5 solas scavenger hunt, nail the thesis, and Bible smuggling. Husband does a short time of teaching with Candy or other prizes for kids paying attention. Super fun!
*Attend a Harvest party or throw one at your home where you can evangelize your kids friends, and your friends can come.
> designate someone to hand out candy bags at the door for any knocking trick or treaters.
*Have a simple gathering at the park with friends with some simple reformation activities and my husband and I dressed up as Luther and Katherine and taught kids about it. we’d sing A Mighty Fortress is Our God and And Can It Be, and other thankful hymns. Maybe do apple bobbing too.
At Home with Family:
Ideas Christians have shared that you can implement into family
tradition too...
*send out, in advance, Happy Halloween cards with a tract to unsaved family and friends. >Collect a list of family and friends from all of your extended family and send it from your family name "From the Brauns Family" on the envelope.
*Hand out candy and tracts in a candy baggie at your door on National Evangelism Night
- decorate your yard and porch in a way that points to Christ and death.
*Make
German food together, reformation hymns, historical reading,
Fun
snacks!!:
-Reese’s
Pieces 90 Theses cookies (I include some Martin’s potato chips in
this recipe)
-make potato pancakes
-Diet
of Worms/dirt pudding
-some
type of mix (Chex mix or trail mix).
-Play games w prizes for kids:
>Do pumpkin carving contest
>Do a scavenger hunt in the yard
*Have a feast, bonfire, games, 1500-1600
time period attire. A best reformer look alike contest. As well have
info throughout the about reformers. We also show pilgrims progress
movie & educational opportunities for our children & church
leading up to the event.
*If
your kids are old enough, the Luther movie from 2003 is pretty good
imo. We used to watch it every year with young adults from church
before we had little kids! It could have images of Christ though..
can’t quite remember but there are several scenes in big Catholic
churches so there could be portrayals of Jesus on the cross
decorating the church and things like that.
*There
are games you can play to talk about the importance of the printing
press, Tyndale’s translation, Jan Hus & John Wycliffe which all
occurred before Luther’s hammer strike.
Then,
there are Luther’s contemporaries: Calvin, Zwingli, & Knox.
Yeah,
it seems that Zwingli came to some of the same ideas independently -
give a talk about him, or a guest speaker
*You
can review this and accommodate it for age ranges...
RC
Sproul Luther & the Reformation
https://www.ligonier.org/posts/reformation-day-free-download-rc-sprouls-luther-and-reformation?fbclid=IwY2xjawF67WFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdU5R28H7SvZIoD9K4GpGYonwF7cGi3VBqo5YoRM73wTawH0Zip0ZPvsJg_aem_h2TzIcjWXKz75GsM1fBQdA
*English
speakers have much to thank the Reformers for. They made it their
lifestyle work and gave their lifestyle blood to bring the Bible in
English to you. If you celebrate Reformation day for one reason, this
can be it, as you share the Gospel.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/689574548856964/permalink/1149874176160330/?mibextid=Nif5oz
*Activity
could be matching game. After learning about people and 1-2 things
they did for reformation, have large card stock or poster with
picture of person or name and 1 thing about them or country where
they were from. Kids have to match up picture with fact (gets them
moving and hands on so helps stick in memory).
Church:
* Do a church Reformation Day celebration with a chili cook-off. Some can dress up (like Luther or Calvin, and Christian themed). There is candy for the kids and some activities. Sing some hymns, eat, fellowship, eat some more. Take pics, post on social media with #DeathIsComingAreYouReady? #JesusSaves and NeedGod.com link added.
*Everyone
is invited to dress for Sunday Service as there favorite Reformer.
(Or favorite Theologian of that era.) Singing of the great songs of
the reformation. Followed by a partial reading of the 95 Thesis and
message. Then we have a traditional meal with food from the 1500s.
Someone usually brings a venison cooked over a fire pit behind the
church. (its usually our last outdoor event before winter.). You can
add smores and sing Hymns too.
*We
have a children's ministry and one of our elders comes back and reads
from a pop up book and it's the story of Martin Luther and the 95
Thesis. Last year I made fun activity bags for 5+ year olds (we
incorporate at age 5) that had a hammer cut out for them to color, a
cookie, and book mark with "Here I stand." Printed on it.
*Pastor
does a 5 Week series covering the five solas. And we’re singing “A
Mighty Fortress.” Come dress as your favorite puritan.
*Start hosting the first annual’s reformation celebration with reformed friends. We will have a feast, bonfire, games, 1500-1600 time period attire. A best reformer look alike contest. As well have info throughout the about reformers. We also show pilgrims progress movie & educational opportunities for our children & church leading up to the event.
*You can incorporate varied ideas from this page into activities for the church and children
Homeschool:
*We
learn about the reformation for the whole month of October in our
homeschool. We use YouTube videos, hymns, picture books, and podcasts
all month, and then on reformation day watch a movie about Luther,
have snacks and “nail” a version of the 95 theses on the door.
*Every
year for years now, we have had our kids study the Reformation for
homeschooling, leading up to the 31st. Then we have them write a play
and act it out that night. I make a big German dinner and dessert and
then we have family worship. It is one of our favorite traditions.
*At
school we would do a 95 theses relay race where you divided into
teams and would see who could get the most theses up in the allotted
amount of time, that was really fun
theses
with tape on the back, then run and slap them on the wall.
*Activity helps:
Podcasts:
Luther in Real Time, and Here We Stand
Hymns:
A Mighty Fortress, Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
Books:
Reformation ABC’s, biographies by Simonetta Carr
YouTube:
Torchlighter’s story of Martin Luther, Five Solas Media “As Told
By Littles” series, …
Here’s a link to a playlist
School ideas:
* Have your kids hand out a candy baggies at school [during lunch or after school] to classmates, to share the leftovers, and so the gospel gets into their kids home.
*Make extra extra candy baggies this year and as the parent, on the day of or after Halloween...hand out a baggy on the sidewalk (outside of the school) to all students leaving that school. Include a text (burner app) number on the tract so students can ask you questions about God anonymously. When handing out ask "Did you get your Treat?"
Local Harvest Parties or Halloween Parades?:
*Are there Halloween or Harvest Parades in your town or city? Or similar thing a event in the park? If so, get the gospel candy baggies ready! Slap a good sized Pumpkin Harvest sticker on the baggie. And another sticker that says "Open in the Car, If You Dare". Est time it will take to hand them out (from parking lot to last baggie) & go near end of parade event. Go as a group, and in pairs, hand them out to kids who look age 8 to 14. This will be their focus because it is at the end of the event. And what they look at in the car on the way home.
* Single Adults: With a few others, Go to a Halloween event happening that night or weekend and hand out tracts or do a air drop/Share nearby of a gospel tract or gospel message such as needGod.com or to a video you created to creatively share the gospel on Halloween. Use buddy system for safety.
More
ideas for reaching neighbors
Related:
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As we celebrate Reformation Day, we gratefully acknowledge the sacrificial work of the great Reformers throughout history—Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, and many others—who labored tirelessly for the sake of the Gospel. Their dedication and courage laid the foundation for our faith, yet we remember that it is Christ, the greatest Reformer of all, whose example and sacrifice inspire us to continue in His truth. Let us honor their legacy while striving to live out the principles of the Gospel they championed.
Fun fact: Because of the Reformers... we all have a Bible in English. The various men in the Reformation era gave their blood and life so you could have and read one. Are you reading it daily?
Footnotes
From veritas
Pumpkin carving and stuff
